The Walking Dead: Every Season 2 Episode Ranked Worst To Best

Following the previous episode's clash between Rick and Shane, Beside the Dying Fire picks up with the farm being overrun by a walker horde. In the chaos, Rick and Carl attempt to lure the walkers away by burning the barn, whilst everyone else gears up to protect the farmhouse.

Unlike the last couple of episodes, the season finale is almost all action, with the group pushed to the limit as they face their biggest threat yet.

Though this action-heavy tone change is brilliant to see, the best part of the episode comes from its final moments: Rick tells the group everyone is infected and destined to turn into a walker no matter how they die; Andrea is saved by a woman we'll soon know to be Michonne; and Rick takes sole control of the Survivors.

It's an explosive, casualty-heavy hour that brilliantly kicks off the Ricktocracy and forces everyone to consider just how difficult the next part of their journey will be. In other words, things would never be the same again.